Metro

World

Spiritual

6 Oct 2017

The Anambra State Police has arrested a metal fabricator identified as Ifeanyi Okpoko a.k.a Anagwanti, over the death of a 16-year-old boy and alleged ritual.

The victim being tied on a crane (inset photo: the suspect)

A metal fabricator identified as Ifeanyi Okpoko popularly known as Anagwanti, has been arrested by the operatives of Nigerian Police in the Ogidi area of Anambra State, on suspicion of ritual murder.

According to reports, Okpoko who hails from Umunnaama, Eziowelle town in Idemili North Local Government Area of the state, was accused of abducting a 16-years-old boy, Chidera Ezeanya in Eziowelle area of the state on Sunday, October1st, 2017.

It was gathered that he allegedly tied and hung him on a hand-crane and by the time Chidera’s dead body was discovered the next day by the youths in the village, some vital organs were missing from his body.

An eyewitness, Chukwudi Okafor said the deceased, Chidera, was in his compound playing on that fateful afternoon with his age mates when Ifeanyi Okpoko called him. Okafor along with Chidera’s play mates had thought that the man wanted to send him on an errand since all of them are from the same Umunnaama village.

Okafor said when they waited till night without seeing him, they went to their various houses, adding that the next morning being Monday October 2, when they learnt that Chidera had not come back, they all went to Ifeanyi Okpoko’s house in search of him, only to see find him tied and hung on a hand-crane.

He said; “We shouted and ran out to call elderly people in the village but before we came back, Okpoko had untied the body, put it in his car and drove out of his compound. It was later that we heard that his body had been deposited at a mortuary in Ogidi."

An octogenarian, Pa Ezekiel Uzomah who expressed shock at the incident said that what Okpoko did was an abomination. He said the youths had wanted to burn the suspect’s house but they were restrained from taking the law into their hands.

However, he said the village has tied palm frond around Okpoko’s house as a sign of ostracization.

Pa Uzomah said that according to their rule, they don’t bring police into issues in their village, adding that the gruesome murder of Chidera by his own kinsmen is beyond the village and prayed that justice should be served for the slain boy.